Setting up a @pomscheme.bsky.social 1km square survey. Nearly always more difficult to find the perfect weather day for pollinator surveys in northern Scotland! At least the heather is blooming for the #FITCounts
Chris
@fife-chris.bsky.social
Ecology, nature, science, mountains…. In any combination!
ECN was involved in an international study on the responses of European plants to climate warming. We contributed data collected at our high altitude Cairngorms ECN site run by @ukceh.bsky.social: ecn.ac.uk/news/europea... #ClimateChange #monitoring #research #ecosystems #LTER @ukri.org
Data from our long-monitored Cairngorm mountain summits contributed to a major study which found that Europe’s plant life is shifting, but not in the same way everywhere. Whilst all plant communities show a ‘climatic debt’, mountains are most vulnerable, losing species that have nowhere else to go
As climate change bites, plant communities alter as warm-loving plants take over Our European analysis shows stronger changes in mountains than grasslands or forests but all show ‘climatic debt’ - communities changing slower than climate Threatening these ecosystems www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A post #StormAmy site visit showed that our precipitation collection funnel (for chemical analysis of rainfall) had been toppled by the 108 mph winds, but otherwise most equipment survived unscathed. First time this has happened since @ukecn.bsky.social long-term monitoring began here 25 years ago.
A windy night in the #Cairngorms with our @ukecn.bsky.social weather station located at 700 m recording a gust of 106 mph and sustained winds of 75 mph as #StormAmy rolled through. That’s our highest recorded gust since Dec 2011, 14 years ago!
A windy night in the #Cairngorms with our @ukecn.bsky.social weather station located at 700 m recording a gust of 106 mph and sustained winds of 75 mph as #StormAmy rolled through. That’s our highest recorded gust since Dec 2011, 14 years ago!
A second remote Birdweather PUC set up at our @ukecn.bsky.social long term monitoring site in the Cairngorms. I like the #BWPUC as it provides realtime #bioacoustic data whilst reducing data storage and post-processing requirements. It also makes outreach and stakeholder engagement easy!
As @royentsoc.bsky.social #InsectWeek begins, we’re excited to share the latest @pomscheme.bsky.social annual report 🐝🪰🪲 Explore this year’s findings and help us welcome The RHS as a new PoMS partner! 👏🏼 Planting a variety of flowers and creating diverse habitats is key for pollinators 🌼 🧵🧪 1/
Phenomenal last day of the spring holiday in #Aberdeenshire, with incredible views of a pod of 6 Orca (inc a juvenile) hunting seals a few hundred meters off the coast at Peterhead. At one point the unfortunate seal was launched about 7m skyward! #Orca #Peterhead #Bririshwildlife
The new FIT Count season is nearly here 🎉🎆👏 From 1st April onwards, when weather is good, enjoy spending 10 minutes counting the insects that visit flowers - wherever you can find flowers, and as often as you wish, to help monitor #pollinators. Full details on our website ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts
I love fieldwork at this time of year. Another day in the #Cairngorns for @ukecn.bsky.social and the light was again a delight. This time calm clear air allowed exceptional views to Ben Nevis some 50 miles to the West, whilst ice/frost covered #lochinsh and the trees down in #strathspey
Islands and #seabirds instead of mountains were the focus of today’s #ecology surveys. Same fantastic winter light though! Amazing what uninhabited places exist just a short boat ride #Edinburgh
More fantastic light over a soggy looking #inshmarshes in the #Cairngorms whilst coming off the hill again today. It would all be so much more enjoyable without nearly 20 kg of tools and weather station on my back though! All for the love of #science 😅
For all my years working in the #Cairngorms, I haven’t often come off the hill in the gloaming. I must say the light this evening was beautiful. A lovely November day collecting long-term environmental data.
Yesterday I saw my first wild UK #beaver. 🤩 The joy of that encounter for me, just 10 mins from home, with added whoops of joy from my daughter, was pure magic. That’s 1 of my 2 wild UK must sees completed. Just an orca to go! #britishwildlife #Fife #nature #lifegoals